Dalai Lama
 

I'd thought I'd start a thread on H.H. the Dalai Lama. I think he is worthy of a thread. When the Dalai Lama speaks about selfless action for example, helping others, or centering in the other, it is not just words that he is speaking. A bit obvious eh ? But I've often read or heard his words and they have just drifted by my ears let alone entered my heart ? But you know the Dalai Lama's words are often very very simple and some people find them boring in a sense, but they are the deepest profoundest wisdoms and wisdom that are spoken on this planet. I think on some level too that they challenge us and our sense of self at the very core of our being and we often react too even against this old monk..we speak about his religion ..his world tour..his Hollywood friends, we chop him down because we at some deep deep level cannot confront ourselves with what he is saying ? Long live his Holiness the Dalai Lama, long live his words of wisdom ..may we meet again in the pure lands in later times and in the present :smile: Does anyone have a favourite quote from his holiness or anything to say on him ?

Sure. I like that simple earthy way of his, which seems different to the long winded discourse of so many monks. I relate to the guy. I went to see him speak once in Sydney's Domain, it rained, and I can't remember what he had to say

my favorite from Australia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlIrI80og8c

The Dalai Lama is reported to have said: "Sleep is the best meditation".

For those familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, this statement is far more insightful than it initially appears to be.

It is also consistent with the Mandukya Upanishad, which both Ram and Shankaracharya are reported to have identified as the one Upanishad sufficient for enlightenment. It's also the shortest of the Upanishads.

"Sleep is the best meditation". Sleep on that. :smile:

Nice one Gem, great to see him all the same, i saw him in Dublin 2011 and can't remember either what he said lol. ..hahahaha ..make me one with everything ...no make me one with the lot ! lol

Interesting thanks for sharing. I've not read that Upanishad but will have a look, might help lol. During sleep so many things can appear, i remember reading this diagram once which explained Ramana Maharshi's ideas of the sense gates and then deeper consciousness etc. and as i slept that night i appeared in this bright very luminous space which was lets say a pleasant place to be lol ..i was more surprised at the directness of that experience..because usually you get all symbolic meanings etc..anyway thanks once again for sharing. :)

'A spoon cannot taste of the food it carries. Likewise, a foolish man cannot understand the wise man´s wisdom even if he associates with a sage'

One of my many favourite quotes. I love the DHDL down to earth attitude.

Ramana Maharshi is one of my favorites and, in "Talks", he often describes the process of remaining aware and alert throughout the three states --- deep sleep, dream state, and "waking" state. The Mandukya Upanishad also covers that but Ramana explains it so much more eloquently (in my humble opinion).

On a related note, the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written by a senior advisor to the Dalai Lama (Sogyal Rimpoche), compares the process of dying to the process of going to sleep. The Sufi Master, Hazrat Inayat Khan, also does this with somewhat different terminology. Hence, "sleep is the best meditation" is an admirable quote by the Dalai Lama because it points to the process of "dying before dying".

I never consider myself as something special.
If I consider myself as something,
then actually I create myself as a prisoner.
I forget these things.
Dalai Lama

I think he said once that 'Childhood is a state of being' or something meaningful like that.